LET'S TALK ABOUT ORGANIC COSMETICS...

LONG LIVE ORGANIC, STOP GMOS

I admit to preferring organic food, tomatoes from my garden when in season and using manure from the neighboring farm. I have even more reservations about GMOs. What's more, I find it totally abnormal that the word 'GMO' is not specified on certain processed products (meat, for example).

So, without being dogmatic, I think we need to move towards short-distance farming, without pesticides, weedkillers and chemical fertilizers.

Organic cosmetics are a completely different story. First of all, organic cosmetics can legally contain up to 5% non-organic ingredients!

So, let's be clear, the vast majority of cosmetics certified as 'organic' are organic in name only.

CONCLUSION

For every two ingredients of natural origin, it is preferable to use the organic one, if only to encourage and finance the trend towards more eco-responsible farming.

However, in cosmetics - and I'm only talking about cosmetics - the 'organic' label misleads the consumer and only enriches the certification bodies who charge a fortune for labels that in no way guarantee the quality of the products.

WHY USE SYNTHETIC INGREDIENTS?

Apart from the fact that organic certification misleads the world and that what is 'natural' is not necessarily good and safe, there are three main reasons for using synthetic ingredients: to reduce the risk of allergies, to improve the texture of products and to prolong their shelf life.

In fact, preservatives and texture agents derived from plants rarely achieve acceptable performance in these areas. Hence the use of synthetic ingredients. What's more, synthetic molecules are often used as fragrances, to avoid the allergies caused by natural fragrances and essential oils. For example, orange essential oil contains the well-known allergens limonene, linalool and citral (geraniol and neral). In addition to the highly embarrassing fact of being photosensitizing, this essential oil is not suitable for hypoallergenic preparations.

And let's remember once again that synthetic products are neither intrinsically good nor bad.

Finally, you might think that the price of an ingredient would be an important criterion in choosing between a natural or synthetic ingredient. In reality, this is rarely the case, except for low-end products where every penny saved is worthwhile.